Nexus Point
Nexus Point is a Native human term used to refer to locations, found scattered across the World of Pokémon, where Wild Roads come together in a hub. In ancient times, these were considered to be exceptionally sacred and magical places - structures such as earthen mounds, standing stones, and pyramids were often erected atop such areas, to be utilized for worship and ritual purposes. Nexus Points were also once considered by Sensitive individuals to be particularly powerful places to sharpen their abilities (and occasionally, they still are ''thought of as such); these were where souls, life force, and the infinitely intricate, inscrutable intelligence of the planet came together in a single concentrated spot - a ''perfect Point, as it were. While humans as a whole have forgotten these areas, except as tourist attractions, the local pokémon may still hold them with a certain respect, if only because their ancestors had done the same for untold centuries. Yokai are sometimes 'born' from the rich interactions of energy at the heart of Nexus Points, which create an environment not unlike the process of Forging. By extension, so are some of the Fair Folk, being as they are the evolved forms of yokai. Lastly, note that nexus ''is Latin for "bond." Nexus Forests Nexus Points that are intersected by one of the major causeways of the ley - those wildest of the untamable Wild Roads - were treated with as much fear as they were awe by long-ago humans; these were ''left in their natural states, with no attempts to build monuments or otherwise make their mark upon these grounds. Ancient humans - and ancient pokémon, for that matter - understood that they were guests ''whose right to tread upon these grounds could be revoked at any time, and whenever they came to worship or to practice, it was always with gifts or offerings to the Folk in tow. A modern urban legend for an age that no longer believes in fairies is to suggest that Ultra Wormholes - as well as more '''direct' portals between worlds, that bypass the need to enter Ultra Space at all - spring up like weeds in certain creepy old forests, and that if you wander into such a place, you'll be eaten alive by the terrifying creatures beyond comprehension that slither through the cracks. The urban legend draws its roots from the historical folk-belief that the boundaries that separate this world from the places and things beyond are particularly thin within Nexus Forests, on account of these areas having the highest concentrations of energy to be found anywhere on Earth. Warped Forests Sometimes, however...people came to these places with different ''motives in mind than peaceful praise or getting in touch with one's inner talents. On account of their being so rich in raw power, Nexus Forests were sometimes viewed, thousands of years ago, as ideal places for humans to ritually sacrifice pokémon, as well as their fellow men; they believed that this would win them the favor, protection, and/or the abilities of the fae, or of the gods. And in some locations, such brutality was done with enough regularity, and at a large enough scale, to ''warp ''the Point's ley - transforming them from a web into a whirlpool; a twisted tangle that souls and life force would be unable to escape from once they flowed into it. The essences of any being that died within a corrupted Forest would become bound to its polluted, stale energy; travelling only along ''its warped Roads before being reborn into their next lives. A long history of atrocities commited upon the grounds of a Nexus Forest is one way a Warped Point can be formed - but it is far from the only ''one. '''Anything '''that pulls the ley out of their natural aligment could cause a location to become corrupted, although the reprocussions of such damage could take years, or decades, or even ''centuries to become noticible to anyone other than Aura-sensitives. Nexuses can also be artifically created; the royal Vespiquen of the Hive Kingdom is an example of this. She warped ley in order to turn her hive into a Nexus Point, and her kingdom into a flourishing font of fertility - but this same act that brought so much life to her land also ended up eventually dooming it. A Warped Forest (and indeed, a Warped Point of any kind) can vary in the severity of its corruption - but at their worst, ''they become locations of pure evil. ''The Pine Barrens are an example of a less polluted, but still damaged, Warped Forest. Firelight Woods, by contrast, is a healthy Nexus Forest, bursting with energy. Some Nexus Forests are believed to be sentient; all of their many components having 'awakened' to form a consciousness greater than themselves. Whether Firelight itself is sentient or not is currently unknown. Category:Lore Category:Locations Category:Terminology